Radnofsky was pleased that incumbent U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison had seen her re-election numbers decline by almost 10 percentage points to 52 percent since March while Radnofsky’s had grown by almost three points to almost 37 percent.

“This shows that we are gaining ground against my opponent,” Radnofsky said.

However, Radnofsky’s percentage of support in the poll is about equal with the base Democratic vote that the party has been receiving in elections since it started losing every statewide race a decade ago.

For Bell, the good news was not that Gov. Rick Perry is stuck at 38 percent support. It was that independent Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn has declined to 11 percent support. Bell was in second place at 20.8 percent, with independent Kinky Friedman nipping at his heals with 20.7 percent – essentially a statistical tie.

“Texas Democrats are waking up to the fact that they way to beat Rick Perry is not with the lesser of two Republicans,” said Bell spokesman Jason Stanford.

Bell’s campaign is counting on the Democratic vote to come home to his campaign if it becomes apparent that Strayhorn or Friedman cannot defeat Perry.

The tale really won’t be told, though, until after Strayhorn begins her television advertising next month or in early September. She has $8 million in the bank, while Bell has about $600,000. A $1 million-a-week advertising campaign can eliminate poll deficits pretty fast.

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Any poll results we’re getting now have to be considered “mushy.” Its always usefull to have some idea of how you’re campaign is doing. However this early in things it pays to not put much weight in them.

I would expect the numbers after Labor Day to be a lot more meaningful.

I was in Lubbock this weekend and saw a flier that Kinky would be hosting a meet-and-greet. I was amazed to find that several hundred people of all ages and persuasions, from bikers to ranchers, had shown up in a sports bar on a Sunday afternoon to shake his hand and make contributions. In Lubbock!!! Admittedly, a lot of the people were undecided, but Gov. Perry has clearly lost a lot of support in what I expected to be his core constituency. This race is going to get really interesting.

Excuse me, just a moment. All the Democratic nominees I’ve seen have lots more than a “breath of life.” I see very vibrant candidates – Radnofsky and Bell in particular – making a great run through election day. They are speaking clearly and honestly about the issues that Texans care about deeply. Audiences are flocking to gatherings all across the state to hear the truth about the horrible state of the state after years of rabid Republican tax cutting that has crippled schools, health care, policing, emergency repsonse and municipal infrasctuctures that should provide safety when natural disasters occur.

As the polling shows, the Republican candidates already hear the heavy breathing on their necks as Democrats close the gap between now and election day.

I believe Texans might want to reconsider voting for GOP candidates and incumbents.

While they support staying the course the US occupation in Iraq it comes at a very steep price: numbers exceed 20,000 causalities seriously injured soldiers with well over 2700 US troops’ perished and still counting. The dollar amount for US occupation climbed to over $500 billion dollars and still counting.

They support the Iraq occupation, but what are we really doing there? “Staying the course” is not a strategy. Why are we still there? Iraqis are fighting the occupation. And since Iraq has become a so-called “democracy” with 91.7 % Iraqis wanting the US to leave, shouldn’t we respect their wishes? Bush remains adamantly fixated on staying the course, but Iraqis have the right to decide, not Bush.

Republicans will support more military action in the Middle-East against Syria and Iran, but neither have done anything to provoke a war. Yet Bush & Cheney are determined to wage more wars. Is it really necessary?

The GOP in Washington have plans to dismantle Social Security. They aren’t talking about that until AFTER the elections.

Kay Bailey-Hutchison has voted — except for her no-show vote — with the party on every issue. Maybe there was one she did not vote with the party, but other than that she has been a rubber-stamp just like Cornyn and Sessions. I read she does not even live in Texas any longer — she moved to Virginia with her children?

While it is one thing to be loyal to the party, it is quite another when the party’s legislation is harming rather than improving our country. When policies increase our vulnerabilities by ensuring Anti-Americanism continues to rise. What does that say about their ability to protect Americans? Nor have they taken action to secure the ports, safeguard chemical and nuclear plants, and fail on other measures. Loyalty means supporting perpetual occupation, more wars plus rolling back more civil rights, suspending habeas corpus, allowing torture and many other pieces of legislation passed by the GOP which are anathema to a federalist democracy.

American voters are disappointed with the lack of oversight and poor judgment calls being made in Washington. Republicans are supposed to be about small government and fiscal responsibility. Instead the party has grown government exponentially, spent money like drunken sailors and kept democrats from participating in writing legislation. The imbalance is tearing at the fabric of our system of government.

The conservative platform seems to be heavily focused on gay marriage and flag burning. Well not all your voters care about those issues, we care about the country, our freedoms, our Constitution and upholding traditions that have long served us well. We care about Iraqis and Afghanis. We care about the rule of law. And we want our leaders to be wise and think rationally. However presently they are making rash judgments in fear. As a result those decisions are destroying what made America a leader on the world stage. They are failing us. We fail ourselves if we don’t take a stand . And if we don’t take a stand we deserve everything we get. How you vote will determine our country’s place in history and the future.